A Hero's Journey Through Science Fiction

The Mothership of all Supercell Thunderstorms

(My kingdom for a laptop keyboard…)

“I’m from Arizona. We don’t get structure like this. Clouds that rotate and look like alien spacecraft hanging over the Earth. We chased this storm from the wrong side (north) and it took us going through hail and torrential rains to burst through on the south side. And when we did…this monster cloud was hanging over Texas and rotating like something out of Close Encounters.” — Mike Oblinski, photographer

Imagine how Roy Neary must have felt as he watched agape the totality of the alien mnothership rising up from behind Devil’s Tower against that starry night in human history. This video by Mr. Oblinski will help you capture that emotion. It deftly uses time-lapse to reveal the growth and movement of this weather colossus. Note the low hanging wall cloud is not unlike the platform of the alien ship, which is lowered to the ground to receive human contact.